CUSA and SunBelt completely over-lap and span west Texas to Mid-Atlantic.It would make sense for them to sort of merge, then split into a Texas-centric conference out west, and another conference in the Southeast.

A few complications - JMU and Liberty are looking to move up to FBS (although their economic study that says there is money in low-level FBS football is totally incorrect), and when the Big XII finally breaks up, a bunch of schools (Iowa State, Baylor, etc.) may be in need of a new home. Should they wait for that Big XII break-up ? It might save YET ANOTHER wave of realignment....

What i suggested back on page 68 of this thread (with my own fantasy realignment of the conferences, which i won't subject you to again). Expecting university Presidents to actually display some common sense is another thing altogether. Egos won't let these guys admit that the big footprint of these conferences is unsustainable, and a big mistake.

I'd have to update it to include Coastal Carolina but most of this still applies. If the Sun Belt and Conference USA don't do something along these lines, it could cause more programs to have to make tough decisions about their football programs.

FBS has had a pecking order between conferences, with desirability based on TV money.

At one time, the SunBelt was rather unstable and at the bottom of the FBS pecking order.So any SunBelt school naturally wanted to move up the ladder and CUSA WAS above the SunBelt.

Anymore, ESPN and the networks are directing essentially ALL their TV money to the P5, and the G5 conferences receive a pittance.The AAC and MWC receive slightly more money, and are the most desirable of the G5 conferences.The MAC, CUSA, and SunBelt are now nominally "equals".CUSA schools generally have a bit more history than the SunBelt schools, but in this last round of negotiations for TV rights, they aren't pulling down SQUAT.So they can attempt to keep up the charade that they are above the SunBelt in pecking order, or they can accept reality and save all these schools a ton of money on silly travel, and re-construct 2 conferences with much better regional rivalries.

What is the mechanism to make this happen ?

Not sure the college presidents are focused on this kind of stuff.The ADs sit and talk to each other during games, maybe they become the driving force....

FBS has had a pecking order between conferences, with desirability based on TV money.

At one time, the SunBelt was rather unstable and at the bottom of the FBS pecking order.So any SunBelt school naturally wanted to move up the ladder and CUSA WAS above the SunBelt.

Anymore, ESPN and the networks are directing essentially ALL their TV money to the P5, and the G5 conferences receive a pittance.The AAC and MWC receive slightly more money, and are the most desirable of the G5 conferences.The MAC, CUSA, and SunBelt are now nominally "equals".CUSA schools generally have a bit more history than the SunBelt schools, but in this last round of negotiations for TV rights, they aren't pulling down SQUAT.So they can attempt to keep up the charade that they are above the SunBelt in pecking order, or they can accept reality and save all these schools a ton of money on silly travel, and re-construct 2 conferences with much better regional rivalries.

What is the mechanism to make this happen ?

Not sure the college presidents are focused on this kind of stuff.The ADs sit and talk to each other during games, maybe they become the driving force....

I would almost say the MAC and perhaps the Sun Belt are ahead of C-USA considering their TV contracts. It really is a charade at this point that C-USA considers themselves that far above the Sun Belt in the whole pecking order of the G5.

As for what can be done, one conference will probably have to take the lead. Kind of like when the Big Eight decided to invite four SWC schools to create the Big XII. Another issue that has to be dealt with as well is what to do with the Sun Belt's non-football schools, UALR and UTA.

What i suggested back on page 68 of this thread (with my own fantasy realignment of the conferences, which i won't subject you to again). Expecting university Presidents to actually display some common sense is another thing altogether. Egos won't let these guys admit that the big footprint of these conferences is unsustainable, and a big mistake.

From the outside, people tend to look at realignment from a "top down" point of view: It makes sense to group these schools together, create balance/symmetry, and why don't they just do THAT?

But the reality is that each established conference and each school is out for what's best for them. No one is going to make a decision based on anything other than "How is this BETTER for us than what we have now?"

In all my years of making analogies on this website, this might be my most insane/wild reference one:

The former members of Guns N Roses/Velvet Revolver have always struggled with finding a lead singer they can write good music with and fits their vision, while being someone they can get along with/not crazy on heroin.

From the "top down view of conference realignment," based on what I like and want to see, it makes total sense for them to replace Scott Weiland with a singer who I feel is an excellent song-writer, can just bleed raw emotion into each song from a place of pain, and is at their peak musically when they are rocking out with the hardest arrangement. And of course I am talking about Taylor Swift. But there's simply no way that that joining Velvet Revolver is a better career move for her.

Also the NCAA has some rule (I don't know the exact numbers) for a conference to maintain continuity, you have to have a minimum of 5 ? 6? teams that have been together for a minimum of 5 ? 6? years....

If you do a major realignment that doesn't comply with that criteria, your resultant conference is a NEW conference and you can lose you prior automatic bids to tournaments in various sports. I believe the WAC may have gone through this back in 2011 or so... but they may have been given a waiver by the NCAA.

So to realign CUSA and the SunBelt, you have to pay attention to how exactly you do this (or seek a waiver).

And you are correct, a "Realignment God" could come up with something sensible in a few minutes, but in actuality there is a TON of politics. For instance Louisiana Tech lives under the delusion they must be separate from the directional UL schools to "maintain their superiority" (which exists only in their minds...) This led them to refuse to join the SunBelt for years, and wait for a CUSA invitation.

When you have schools moving in and out of a conference, you have to have so many together for a certain period of time for continuity.

For instance, if you had an 8-team conference called the ABC Conference, and 4 schools left and 4 replacement schools came in, the NCAA would say:This NEW ABC Conference doesn't have sufficient continuity of member schools, it is essentially a NEW conference, and oh by the way, your automatic tournament bids are gone....

So if there were whole-sale changes in re-arranging the SunBelt and CUSA, they'd have to pay attention to that OR get a waiver from the NCAA (which involves approval from some committee made of people from other conferences who WOULD likely approve it, if they felt it was for the good of college sports in general).

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